The Impact of License Plate Recognition Technology (LPR) on Trust in Law Enforcement: A Survey-Experiment Journal of Experimental Criminology

• NCJ Number: 252003
• Author(s): Linda Merola, Cynthia Lum, Ryan Murphy
• Date Published: January 2018
• Length: 12 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Evaluating the Crime Control and Cost-Benefit Effectiveness of License Plate Recognition (LPR) Technology in Patrol and Investigations

Annotation

This study examined the extent to which individuals' knowledge of an advanced police technology (license plate recognition or "LPR") may impact perceptions of police.

Abstract

Technologies with the capacity to track individuals' movements are becoming increasingly common in police practice. Although these technologies may yield positive benefits, their use may also heighten community concerns about increased surveillance, data storage, and data security, thereby potentially negatively impacting community-police relationships. The study used a survey-based experiment with randomized assignment of participants (n=405) to investigate the impact of individuals' knowledge of police LPR use on a variety of community perceptions of police, including trust in police, community approval, respect for citizens, and respect for individual rights. The study found that most respondents were unaware of police use of LPR prior to the survey. When compared with a control group, respondents who encountered brief mentions of LPR functions on the survey expressed significantly lower levels of trust in police. In addition, "strong agreement" with other positive statements about police also appears to have declined in this sample in response to LPR information. Notably, the sample contained high pre-existing levels of trust and support for police, factors which may have moderated the impacts of LPR information. These results support the hypothesis that awareness of LPR use may negatively impact perceptions of police, including trust in police. More generally, although technologies like LPR represent technological innovations, they may also yield unintended consequences, including the potential to undermine police-community relations if adoption decisions are not accompanied by sufficient transparency or community support. (Publisher abstract modified)